HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's basketball team registered its third straight victory on Tuesday evening at Gooding '84 Arena, dispatching visiting Gettysburg 60-55. Haverford improves to 7-4 overall (5-2 Centennial Conference) while Gettysburg falls to 8-4 and 4-3 in Centennial Conference play. Sierra Berkel had a team-high 15 points and six rebounds while Samantha Wetzel posted her second consecutive double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds in the win.
Haverford went into the halftime break trailing 27-20, as the Bullets turned a 9-7 lead into a 21-13 advantage before the Fords started to find a shooting rhythm. Macy Goldbach and Anna-Sophia Capizzi capped a run with back-to-back shots as the Fords pulled to within 21-18, leading to a Gettysburg timeout. Ashley Gehrin hit a layup with just under a minute left and completed a three-point play to push the advantage to 24-18 before Lindsay Hiner hit a trey to give the visitors a 27-18 lead. Maddie Gallic hit a layup at the buzzer to pull Haverford to within seven.
The third quarter started to turn for the Fords at just under the five minute mark, as Maddie Gallic hit a three-pointer and Megan Furch followed with a jumper following a turnover to cut the lead to 35-32 in favor of Gettysburg. The Bullets pulled ahead 41-32 with an Emily Gibbons runner with 3:10 remaining, but Capizzi converted on her next three attempts as the Fords pulled to within one at 43-42.
After Emma Dorshimer netted a layup with 17 seconds left in the quarter, Wetzel sank a jumper to cut the lead to 45-44 at the end of three.
Goldbach hit the first shot of the fourth quarter to give the hosts a 46-45 advantage and the Fords pulled ahead by three at 50-47 on a Berkel layup with 6:31 left in regulation. Goldbach followed a miss on the Gettysburg end with a layup ahead of a 4-0 stretch for the visitors that cut the lead to 52-51.
The two squads were held scoreless until the 2:26 mark when Berkel converted on a three-point play, netting a layup and making her free throw to ignite the Haverford bench and give the Fords their largest lead of the contest thus far. Gibbons missed a jumper that led to a Wetzel defensive rebound, and Katie Cook found Berkel with a pass that set up an emphatic layup that pushed the advantage to six for Haverford.
Another long scoreless stretch led to Haverford possession with just 36 seconds left. Gettysburg fouled in an attempt to make Haverford prove their mettle on the line, and the Fords, behind Cook, were able to put the game away at the free throw line.
Gibbons contributed 14 rebounds for the Bullets to go with eight points, while Ashley Gehrin added 16 points off the bench, a game-high. Dorshimer had 13 points as the only other Gettysburg player in double figures.
For Haverford, Capizzi chipped in 10 points off the bench while Cook (8 points), Gallic and Goldbach (7 points each) each played large supporting roles, supporting Berkel and Wetzel on the wings as the forwards were able to get past a stout Gettysburg defensive effort that included five blocks and six steals.
Haverford out-shot the Bullets 37.3 percent to 35.4 percent while the Fords also had the better performance beyond the arc, sinking five shots in 18 attempts.
The Fords will be back in action on Thursday, traveling to McDaniel for a 6:00 p.m. tipoff against the Green Terror in Westminster, Md. The matchup precedes the men's game between Haverford and McDaniel at 8:00 p.m.